What do on first play through

What do on first play through.

if it's a good game you expect to play at least twice: hard

debate me

Normal

normal unless the devs state that another difficulty is the way the game is meant to be played

most of the time hard or harder is just inflated enemy hp and damage with no other challenge, makes shit tedious

Normal or hard (or nightmare I suppose) depending on how familiar you are with the type of game in question

Normal because I'm not a tryhard or a casual.

>i play on normal

normal always. not too hard not too easy.

Normal.

I'm not a shitter normalfag who plays on easy neither am an elitist asshole who loathes himself/herself of being hotshit for playing hard/nightmare on first run.

Nightmare ever time. Most games now a days are pathetically easy. If it is hard ill just dial it back.

Start on hard, nightmare for second play through if the game is worth it.

Refund it because good games should be designed around one difficulty, not multiple.

What's the point in choosing nightmare if it just raises enemy HP and their damage output? Where is the actual difficulty.

Hard for everything besides first-person shooters.
I'm absolute dogshit when it comes to those.

If it's Ys, I always start on Nightmare. That's the true way to play.

Easy.
Fight me.

>normal
>I'm not a normal
wat.

normal

every time I pick hard I end up running into some bullshit part that makes me hate the game, like the ghost bitch boss fight from bioshock infinite

Normal. Because I am not a scrub. But also need to know the game before challenging myself. Baseline expirience to learn the basics. Then Hard then Nightmare every time from then on.

>I'm not a normalfag
>playing on Normal
HMMMMMMMmmmmmmm reallllly makeeees you (YES YOU!) thinking and think and thinkoe!

hard
so when you want to replay it you can choose nightmare

>not adjusting difficulty constantly as you play through the game to avoid getting stuck or coasting through any parts

Hard or nightmare

normal

Depends on the game. Usually I'd go with Normal, but if it's an FPS I'd go with Hard. If you can change difficulty mid-game, I'd go Nightmare.

Mod the game to unlock the secret difficulty you only get for beating Nightmare.

Not all games do that user

>playing anything but the menu and opening cinematics

>thinks playing on max difficulty first run is elitist
>I'm not a normalfag
You're funny.

hard is patrish. A good nightmare mode implies foreknowledge of the game's mechanics

>all those people saying "normal"
No shit the game industry is such a load of trash.
PROTIP: normal is designed for people new to videogames and/or the genre of the game. If you've been playing for at least a few years you should always use the second hardest difficulty (see Ultra-Violence).

Normal unless it's made by a dev that I know isn't a fucking shitter and can actually balance the other difficulties. Most hard modes are just turning enemies into damage sponges or turning you into a pile of straw without any real change to the AI/behavior except for maybe making them snap shooting headshot machines.

>Games with difficulty settings

99.6% of the time all they do is make enemies have more health/do more damage AKA unceasing tedium. If I can beat a boss when he has one health bare I can beat him when he was 4, it just drags on longer.

Normal is always too easy nowadays, and easy is just braindead.

Start on hard, bump up if needed.

Generally Normal if its a series I'm very familiar with Hard. If I'm finding the game too easy I'll up the difficulty, seems to happen most often with AAA games like RotTR I ended up changing to Seasoned Raider difficulty after a few hours. I will save Nightmare/Very Hard difficulties for repeat playthrough unless its really poorly balanced I won't even bother.

Nightmare on FPS
Normal or Hard on other genres, depending how it fairs me

We play normal because most devs are fucking shit and just do the whole "lol now you die in two hits but they take 100" for hard mode and up. That isn't fun by any means. There are exceptions though. Platinum games/some Capcom offerings actually change things in other difficulties like enemy placements and attack patterns.

>have more health/do more damage
That's all you need to increase the difficulty for a turn-based game.

Normal, then hard if I feel like I can do it.

Depends on the type of game and how good I am at said type of game.

>its one of those 'Only Hard Mode to get the true final boss' type of deals.

Opinions on dynamic difficulty in games?

I want to like it because it probably makes start to finish much smoother, but I am deeply disturbed by the idea that I might die twice to a boss until I git gud enough to beat it, but I'd win on the third try regardless of whether or not I improved because the game decided to take it easy on me without my consent.

If I'm playing a series or franchise for the first time, Normal or Hard. If I'm already experienced with the series, hardest difficulty.

Normal. If I enjoy the game enough, I'll do it again on Hard or Nightmare, depending on how much I liked it and how much I expect to suffer.

2nd hardest difficulty
ALWAYS


Hardest is usually retardedly hard for the wrong reasons
(modern) normal mode is yesteryear's easy mode.

2nd hardest or bust

Usually normal because higher difficulties usually entail just inflating enemy stats which is dumb as hell

Normal on first playthrough.
Easy after that.
Hard never except when the game offers rewards for clearing higher difficulties.

Hard unless it's a genre or a combat system I'm not familiar with.

>If it's 4 difficulties, play on hard
>If it's 3/5 difficulties, play on normal
>game I don't really care about difficulty in -easy
>game with fun gameplay -hard

Always easy. I've learned that artificial difficulty and rare drop rates aren't worth it, if you drop the game.

I usually pick hard, but automata fucked me up and I had too switch to normal
also normal for JRPGs cus I hate grinding

i like how godhand does it, where difficulty is already pretty good to start out with and just scales as you do better, not the other way around

Normal to see how difficult it is. Then change to hard or stay

I'd say Normal just because it's typically the developer intended experience of the game, then harder for your second playthrough.

Normal
Hard/Hardest on metal gear

There isn't a single videogames with multiple difficulties that isn't brain-dead easy on normal.
Yes a lot of devs do difficulties cheaply, but even then if you don't play on hard you won't receive any challenge -which is the whole point of games.

Usually, I like to start the game on normal, and then four times out of five it's too hard and I switch to easy. I like games to be relaxing, not blood-pressure raising. Most games I play are story games anyway, so I like to roleplay -- Alien: Isolation was my favorite game of the year, and I played it on Novice and had the time of my life. I roleplayed like it was more difficult than it was. Felt fucking fantastic, bros. I have nothing to prove. I just like to play.

>games where you can choose your difficulty
I'd pick the refund option

I hole-hardedly agree, but allow me to play doubles advocate here for a moment. For all intensive purposes I think you are wrong. In an age where false morals are a diamond dozen, true virtues are a blessing in the skies. We often put our false morality on a petal stool like a bunch of pre-Madonnas, but you all seem to be taking something very valuable for granite. So I ask of you to mustard up all the strength you can because it is a doggy dog world out there. Although there is some merit to what you are saying it seems like you have a huge ship on your shoulder. In your argument you seem to throw everything in but the kids Nsync, and even though you are having a feel day with this I am here to bring you back into reality. I have a sick sense when it comes to these types of things. It is almost spooky, because I cannot turn a blonde eye to these glaring flaws in your rhetoric. I have zero taller ants when it comes to people spouting out hate in the name of moral righteousness. You just need to remember what comes around is all around, and when supply and command fails you will be the first to go. Make my words, when you get down to brass stacks it doesn't take rocket appliances to get two birds stoned at once. It's clear who makes the pants in this relationship, and sometimes you just have to swallow your prize and accept the facts. You might have to come to this conclusion through denial and error but I swear on my mother's mating name that when you put the petal to the medal you will pass with flying carpets like it’s a peach of cake.

Usually hard unless it's a genre I have very little experience in like weird jap shit.

Normal, unless I enjoy the combat. Meat shields aren't fun on their own, and the risk of death doesn't make bad/mundane combat fun for me.

Lotta brainlets in this thread, huh? Since I play thinking man's games (i.e. Strategy games) I always start with normal. Anything more presupposes a familiarity with the endgame.

lmao fucking casual
go back to plebbit and stay there

>dynamic difficulty
Flat out annoying.

Haha. I really hate reddit, too. I don't usually go on this board, I spend most of my time on /ck/. Sorry I got you upset by posting my opinion!

>There isn't a single videogames with multiple difficulties that isn't brain-dead easy on normal.
The original NA release of DMC3, although that was intentional since what they did was make the JP Normal into Easy and JP Hard into Normal. Say what you will about games like that and tell me they're easy, but for the average and kind of above average player that shit was ball bustingly difficult.

Normal unless there is one specifically called "Hardcore"

I always choose hard with the exception of a few genres.

For shooters only, hard every time

Everything else gets normal

easy

i have like zero patience for games now

Depends on the game

I Wanna Be The Guy

>This whole thread
Holy shit what the hell went wrong with this board?
Is this a generational thing? Like the whole gen-z has been raised on phone games?

Autism in its pure form

...

What's wrong, user?

Hard. It's basically always normal anyway

Normal. Might give Hard a shot if the game is said to be easy or if it's some kind of platformer since I'm half decent at those, or if playing anywhere under Hard locks you out of the good ending or some content

ITT: casuals

>his example his a game in which the normal difficulty is just hard but relabelled.

>troll game

Name me some games released in the last year that have hard modes that aren't just "buff enemy damage/nerf player defense+health/turn all enemies into insta-snap headshotting aimbots."

Normal. I'm not a tryhard or a sissy. After I beat the game then I'll play on hard.

Generally normal, because that's usually the way the game is tailored to. Making it harder usually only makes the battles more annoying due to inflated health bars.
It's always nice when the hardest mode is the objectively best way to play, though. Hardcore Ranger mode in Metro 2033 and Insanity in Mass Effect 2 were fucking fantastic.

Depends on the game but Hard most likely. Nightmare could be fun but in practice it often means ridiculous stats, bullet sponge enemies and requires the knowledge of special tactics. If I like the game it's also nice to have that option for a replay.

I wouldn't like to admit I played that game, but I remember it forced me lower the difficulty in the very last mission. Keeping the ship in one piece was frustratingly impossible, combat can be braved up with enough tries, defending a ship with literally 10 weak points isn't logical

Hard

Normal on modern games have zero challenge

...

To all the tough talking faggots in this thread who choose hard or above, you know who your equivalent is in hentai? You're that mind broken vagina gaping slut who started out self assured and cocky, then got raped horribly and repeatedly by dark souls (or similar franchise) so hard that your rekt boipucci can no longer be satisfied by anything less rough.

Congratulations, you're rape victims stuck with Stockholm syndrome and you can't help but want more abuse.

Normal because it looks hard but it's actually easy. I like to have fun, i don't have fun losing and patiently learning from my mistakes, i don't have that kind of time.

What i want from most games is for them to be engaging enough so i'll be thinking about the game while playing and not about other stuff.
I don't like chore games where i have to grind for hours doing shit that i don't like just to have a few minutes of a section i actually like... that's what life is all about, i don't want the game to be like life.

those are all legitimate forms of difficulty you fucking casual

Normal, because it's usually the difficulty the devs build the game around.
If I find it too easy, I might bump it up.

once on hard (or normal) Then NG+ on normal (or easy) to steamroll my way throuh the game feeling like an invincible badass

Hard or nightmare depending on what it means

If it's one of those games were Nightmare means "Enemies have double damage and hp you do half damage" then I'll just play it on hard or even on normal if it pulls of the same bullshit

hawt

This is pretty much correct

Normal in modern games compares to easy on older games

...

>I'd only pick Nightmare first because it'll teach me the game faster and get me the worst achievements
>Replay through the other difficulties having learned good habits instead of bad habits

How about make the game more technical than prolong the fight with more health/more dmg

Rabi-ribi.

Not true though, modern games are just inherently easier because they have better controls and mechanics (Most of the time) so if you don't tune up the difficulty it's extremely easy

The true patrician choice are games without a difficulty slider or with multiple tweaks to what enemies can and cannot do

Muh Nigga